document_title: List of Home Improvement characters

question_text: who played brad's girlfriend jennifer on home improvement

question_tokens: who played brad 's girlfriend jennifer on home improvement

text: List of Home Improvement characters

text: Taylor family[edit]

text: Tim Taylor[edit]

text: Timothy "Tim" Taylor (Tim Allen) – Tim Taylor (the character has a birth date of October 1954) is the father of the family. Ever the know-it-all, Tim believes he has an incredibly wide knowledge of tools, electronics, and general mechanics. In reality, he is highly accident-prone. He actually does have a significant amount of skill as a general handyman, but can be overly confident and prone to spectacular mishaps. He often forgets a crucial step, ignores instructions, makes ill-advised modifications, or comes to inaccurate conclusions. The only exception to this ineptitude is when working on cars, at which he excels. He is left-handed but actually does a great deal of his work with his right hand. Taylor's "arch enemy", so to speak, was the real-life home improvement specialist, Bob Vila. One episode saw Tim competing against Bob Vila in a lawnmower contest for charity. Tim actually installed a jet engine on his machine-which resulted in Tim causing unintended chaos and destruction. Tim hosts a home improvement show called Tool Time with his co-host and friend, Al Borland. While Al is his co-host, Al constantly must remind Tim of safety regulations and practices. Tim often ignores Al's advice, and this frequently results in an accident. While it is constantly mentioned that Tool Time is a limited local home improvement show that sits very high on the channel dial, Tool Time seems to have a very wide audience in the state of Michigan, and is progressively broadcast to more outlets across the Midwest (A season 5 episode has Tim, Al, and Bud brainstorming for ideas on how to bring the show into the Chicago markets). Tim often boasts at his popularity for hosting the show, although many people state that they like Al better. A running gag involves people encountering Tim in public and stating, "Oh, we always watch Tool Time...we love Al." To which an annoyed Tim would reply, "Oh yeah, we all love Al." In later seasons, however, it is learned that Tim actually has a higher fan base than Al.

text: Because of the numerous accidents in which he is involved, both on his TV show and at home, it is a recurring joke that Tim is on a first name basis with the hospital staff, and it is often suggested that Tim has special offers available to him for being a repeat customer. Another gag is that Tool Time fans believe his many accidents are staged, to show people what not to do. However, many of Tim's modified inventions work but are often too powerful, like his new ice cube dispenser in season 2. Tim often garbles advice he heard from Wilson and/or otherwise makes stupid remarks – although on one episode Tim stuns Jill and Wilson by putting forth sound advice of his own. Another running gag is Tim accidentally causing damage or destruction to anything he touches – such as destroying the world's smallest car or running over golf carts with a Marine Corps tank. Tim has an unhealthy obsession with Halloween and Christmas, going to extraordinary lengths to scare others and competing with "Doc Johnson" in the annual neighborhood Christmas lighting contest, which he has rarely won.

text: While Tim has a very good relationship with his wife, he is quick to admit defeat in any conflict they become engaged in. He also works hard to maintain healthy relationships with his three sons, although he relates more closely to Brad than Randy or Mark.

text: Tim is occasionally chauvinistic in attitude, usually putting women down or sometimes seeing them as inferior(But he often must absorb the same insults against men from Jill). He also tends to mock those who are overweight, such as Al's mother or his mother-in-law (until she loses weight), and can be juvenile in attitude on many occasions. A running gag involves Jill's distaste for his attitude, in that she says "You're pathetic" every time he goes too far. Tim is an avid fan of all the local sports teams; the Detroit Lions, the Detroit Pistons, the Detroit Red Wings, and the Detroit Tigers. He is also a big fan of boxing, the Indy Racing League, and tractor pulls. Many scenes take place in the garage during his favorite hobby, working on one of his two hot rods, one of which he built from the ground up, and the other existing vehicle that he restored.

text: While he occasionally considers moving on professionally, Tim remains the main host of Tool Time until the final episode of Home Improvement. Before he was cast on Tool Time, he worked as a traveling tool salesman. Tim barely graduated from college, but later receives an honorary Doctorate from Western Michigan University. Tim is famous for his ever-popular noisemaking, which he refers to as a "Simian grunt."

text: His mother is alive for the entire series, however his father died when Tim was eleven years old. There has always been some disparity between how many brothers Tim has. On several occasions in the later seasons, it is mentioned that Tim has four brothers, but in earlier seasons he is stated to have five, however, seven have been mentioned by name (Marty, Jeff, Rick, John, Steve, Brian, and Danny).

text: Tim always thinks things need "more power", and is often seen wearing sweaters from Michigan-based colleges. Tim thinks he knows everything there is to know about tools.

text: Tim is the only character to appear in every single episode. A close second is Jill, who only missed the second part of the series finale (unless one counts the flashbacks shown).

text: Jill Taylor[edit]

text: Jillian "Jill" Patterson Taylor (Patricia Richardson) – Jill (born November 1956) is Tim's wife and the mother of Brad, Randy, and Mark. Jill graduated from Adams High School (taken from an actual high school in Rochester Hills, Michigan) in 1973. Jill is intelligent, practical, and has a dry sense of humor that doesn't often fly with her family. After she decides that her career is not fulfilling, Jill dedicates herself toward earning her master's degree in Psychology. While she is very motherly and domestic in nature, she is apparently a very bad cook, as Tim and the three boys often make remarks about her cooking. Her strong femininity is often in direct conflict with Tim's masculinity, occasionally leading her to wonder why they work as a couple.

text: Jill comes from a strong military family, and sometimes uses her upbringing to solve several family squabbles. Her father was a Colonel in the US Army and is referred to as such. Jill has four sisters, all of whom have appeared: Robin, Carrie, Tracy, and Linda. (A fifth sister, Katie, was briefly mentioned by Jill's mother in the season 2 episode, "Much Ado About Nana", and in the season 4 episode, "Quibbling Siblings", but never again.) She often appears overwhelmed at the fact that she is the only female in a family with three sons and no daughter. She appears closest to her youngest son, Mark, as she remarks a few times that Mark is the only one who still has the ability to be open-minded to accept the things that Jill likes as opposed to being the typical "boy". Early on, she has a temporary job working at a magazine, and later in the series, Jill is a psychology student. She also does a significant amount of volunteer work, especially for the local library.

text: Jill has a strong feminist side and enjoys opera, theatre, and the ballet. She occasionally tries to be interested in sports and tools but always ends up relating to her husband over his buried sensitivity. Jill also considers it her mission to get Tim, Brad, Randy, and Mark to do the right thing. Jill refers to any or all of her sons, as well as Tim by their full names when she is angry. Jill likes to "match-make", with mixed results, as she did set up Al with Ilene, who were together for a few seasons, and Wilson and one of her professors in another successful relationship. She also has a thing for cars – driving at different times an Austin-Healey 3000 (which Tim hates because he doesn't understand British wiring) and a cherry red Chevy Bel-Air Nomad; in two memorable episodes, Jill is furious with Tim for driving her Healey without permission and for wrecking her Nomad. In other memorable episodes, Jill is extremely angry at Tim when he calls her an "old Hen" on TV and when she finds out he bought $4,000 worth of game tickets for the Detroit Pistons.

text: Brad Taylor[edit]

text: Bradley Michael "Brad" Taylor (Zachery Ty Bryan) – (born January 1981) is the oldest, most athletic and strongest of the three boys, once seen throwing Randy around when they got into an argument. While all three boys are portrayed as troublemakers at one point or another, Brad gets into the most serious trouble. He is the only one to have a run-in with the police (after throwing bricks at windows in an abandoned greenhouse) and was once discovered in possession of marijuana, which he admitted to smoking. On the other hand, Brad was the only Taylor son to co-host an episode of Tool Time, and the one seen doing the most extensive work on Tim's Hot Rod, and is the son to which Tim relates to the easiest. Although he often struggled with his school work, he has extraordinary athletic ability, especially playing soccer. Throughout the series, he was offered numerous opportunities to make a career out of soccer, including the offer to play for a professional team in England (the fictitious Birmingham Chubbs). This was rejected when his parents refused to allow him to give up college to play professional soccer. Later in the series, despite a knee injury which threatened to put an end to his athletic pursuits, he earned a college scholarship to UCLA. Brad has a prominent attraction to women, including his mild infatuation with Tool Time 's Heidi Keppert. Brad and Tim enjoy working on classic cars.

text: Brad got along well with Randy, especially early on in the show. The two are often seen working together to tease Mark, attempting to cover up Brad's actions to keep him out of trouble, or just hanging out together. Brad and Mark don't share many things in common until they get older, especially in the 8th season where they develop a close bond while Randy is away in Costa Rica.

text: Randy Taylor[edit]

text: Randall William "Randy" Taylor (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) – Randy (born February 8, 1982) is the middle child, ultimately the smartest of the three boys, and frequently the most mischievous troublemaker. Randy's intelligence eventually led to him skipping ahead to advanced math and science classes, and was often the cause of sibling rivalry with Brad. Randy inherited Tim's talents as a jokester. Randy in the later seasons is noticeably a lot shorter than his brothers and his height is often made fun of by Brad. Whenever Tim was in trouble with Jill, Randy was always there with a quick remark that would almost always get him in trouble. Although initially sharing mostly the same interests as Brad and his father, throughout his adolescence Randy became very conscious about the environment and civil rights. He became very skeptical of the intentions of organized religion, especially Christian denominations, and became a vegetarian in later seasons. He wrote for the school newspaper, where he concentrated on social and political issues, including criticizing Binford for its pollution record, which led to a fierce disagreement with Tim. Unlike Brad who dated many different girls, Randy, for the most part, only dated one girl, Lauren, whom he remained with for the rest of the series.

text: Randy is generally the most level-headed son in the family, although because he is an intelligent boy, he was also prone to arrogance, jealousy, and sometimes a little prejudice. His father has a tendency to dislike and mock anything he has no interest in, such as ballet and opera, and Randy inherited this attitude, which ironically puts him at odds with Tim, since Randy has no interest in cars and tools. Out of all the Taylor boys, Randy is the one with the least respect for his father. He once called his father's show "Fool Time", and compared his father to an ape. When Tim brought Brad onto Tool Time, Randy immediately called it a stupid show and acted hateful towards Tim and Brad. During high school, he wrote a school article that turned many adults against Tim for Binford's pollution record, threatening his father's reputation, and he bitterly disapproved of Brad's jockish article earning the paper's front page, which was usually occupied by Randy's articles. He does however mend his relationships with them after learning the error of his ways.

text: In the Eighth Season of the show, Randy leaves for Costa Rica (along with Lauren, who stayed in a nearby town), reappearing in only one episode when he came back for Christmas. On that occasion, Randy felt that so much had changed in his absence that he no longer fit in with the family, although confiding in Wilson aided his feelings. Unlike Tim and Brad, Randy is not good with his hands and does not enjoy working on crafts or the Hot Rod. Randy often relates more with his mother, with whom he shares his intelligence and enjoyment of acting (although Tim embarrassed Randy during one acting scene thanks to a malfunctioning stage prop). In another episode Randy's party with friends was ruined due to Tim putting on too many coats of floorwax-which resulted in his girlfriend getting a sprained ankle.

text: Early on in the show, Brad and Randy were portrayed as "partners in crime". While they did argue like normal brothers, they generally bonded over their mutual enjoyment of teasing Mark. As they got older, they grew apart somewhat, as Randy became more focused on school and social issues and Brad became more focused on athletics and girls.

text: Early on Randy and Mark generally only get along when united against Brad, though things improved somewhat as they got older.

text: Mark Taylor[edit]

text: Marcus Jason "Mark" Taylor (Taran Noah Smith[1]) – Mark (born March 1985) is the youngest and most sensitive of the three boys.[2] He relates very closely with his mother, especially after the first season. He does not share many interests with his brothers or father, and in the early seasons was often the victim due to his naïveté of some practical joke that Brad and Randy had thought up on the spot for him. Mark is not a troublemaker, as he doesn't possess a joking demeanor or even a hint of a mean streak. On the rare occasions that Brad or Randy include him on pranks, Mark often blows their cover by responding to someone when he is not supposed to or divulging too much information. This divulging of information not only gets Brad and Randy in trouble, but often Tim as well, especially when he is trying to keep something he said or did from Jill. During adolescence, Mark began to adopt a more "goth" look and an anti-establishment kind of attitude, the cause of which was founded in his feelings of social isolation. While Mark's darkening demeanor worried Tim and Jill on several occasions, it never turned into anything extremely destructive, although a homemade horror movie he created was a bit more twisted than they expected. His Gothic appearance was gone by the end of the series. Mark enjoys film production and music, took karate and pilot training, and became a proficient cook. During the early seasons of the show Mark is seen in a Cub Scout uniform-sans badges.

text: Mark's relationship with Brad and Randy was often adversarial, especially in early seasons as he was often the butt of their jokes, pranks and teasing. While Mark never truly bonded with Randy, in the final season Mark and Brad grew very close as the result of the dynamic of their relationship changing when Randy left for Costa Rica. Mark eventually became taller than Randy and later Brad.

text: Marty Taylor[edit]

text: Martin "Marty" Taylor (William O'Leary) – Marty (born in 1964) is Tim's youngest brother by ten years. As their father died when Marty was just one year old, Tim is the closest thing he knows to a father. Marty was often picked on by his older brothers, much as Mark is by Brad and Randy. He is often seen bouncing from job to job, unable to hold a steady career. For the majority of the show's run, Marty was married to Nancy (Jensen Daggett), and they had identical twin girls, Gracie and Claire.

text: Jeff Taylor[edit]

text: Jeffrey "Jeff" Taylor (Thom Sharp) – Jeff is Tim and Marty's oldest brother (exact age unspecified). He is extremely frugal and suffers from male-pattern baldness, both of which make him a frequent target of Tim's jokes. Like Marty, Jeff has trouble maintaining a steady job. It is mentioned that he has made a number of bad business ventures (such as a drive-thru pet store), was divorced twice, and didn't finish college (as mentioned by Jill's sister in one episode). Jeff eventually makes an investment in Tim's hardware store.

text: Friends of the family[edit]

text: Al Borland[edit]

text:
Al Borland

Home Improvement character

First appearance
"Pilot"

Last appearance
"The Long and Winding Road"

Portrayed by
Richard Karn

Information

Family
Alma Borland (mother)
Cal Borland (brother)

text: Albert E. "Al" Borland (Richard Karn) – A master plumber and licensed contractor, Al is Tim's un-hip sidekick on the show-within-a-show Tool Time and best friend. His personality is an exact opposite of Tim's – he is reserved, quiet, does not show much enthusiasm and has a wide array of professional knowledge concerning tools. Al made frequent suggestions that he should be the host of Tool Time instead of Tim. Al does not make as much money as Tim, in fact it is implied that his salary is not very big at all. In the episode, "Brothers and Sisters", Al says that he gets a very small paycheck. In the episode, "Fifth Anniversary", it is revealed that a big reason why Al was chosen to be Tim's assistant was because Al was the only assistant applicant that was willing to work for the salary that was offered. Al could be characterized as a "mama's boy"; he spent a great deal of time attempting to please his mother Alma – who was severely overweight (though she was never seen). She died from a heart attack near the end of the series after Al asked her permission to marry Trudy. His father was almost 60 when Al was born. Young Al has mechanical talent-constructing a model crane out of wood. Al was engaged to an orthodontist named Ilene for a time, but they ended up calling off the wedding. He also dated Greta Post who appeared a few times in the series. In a later season, Al met a wealthy exterminator named Trudy. They hit it off and were married in the show's final episode. Al might have been based on Norm Abram of This Old House because of the resemblance (flannel shirts, beard, pudgy, etc.) and the fact that Al does all the "real work" on the Tool Time show (much like Norm did on This Old House). In the episode "No, No, Gadot", Tim and Al were arrested for scalping hockey tickets. In a holding cell, an inmate named George approached them and asked if they were "the guys from that TV tool show", and Tim responded with "why, yes, I'm Bob Vila, and this is Norm". Al has a big brother named Cal who is a physicist, and unlike some other siblings around the world, they had never gotten into a physical fight. Instead, they usually settled their disputes over a cup of tea. In a flashback episode of the Tool Time premiere, Al was noted to be a Pisces and had a clean-shaven face, while Tim had a beard. Al has his own fan club. Like Tim, Al is left-handed and his favorite board games are Parcheesi, Chinese Checkers, Scrabble and Bingo. His favorite movie is My Fair Lady. One episode had a pet of Al's, a turtle named "Scooter," which Tim accidentally dropped in cement. With his dry wit, Al serves as the show's (both Tool Time and Home Improvement) straight man to the wackier, more outgoing Tim. Beginning at the end of the fifth season, Al invented a second source of income for himself by inventing a board game based on Tool Time, which features Tim, Al and Heidi as playable characters.

text: Family, fashion sense, and career[edit]

text: Borland is slightly overweight, and always seen wearing flannel, which Tim cracks jokes about consistently. The reason he always wears flannel came from his father, who, when asking young Al to assist in their own various home projects, would put his old flannels on Al to keep him clean or warm. Al wears flannel as a tribute to him after he died.

text: Tim also often criticizes Al's mother, Alma Borland, who is never seen (except her hand and forearm), but is apparently severely overweight. In one of the later episodes, Al announces to his mother he is getting married. Immediately afterwards, she screams, passes out, and dies. (she was holding a breadstick, which was all that was seen) When hearing the news, the breadstick shook violently and fell over. The coffin, shown at her funeral, is double-wide to keep the humorous tone.

text: Al also has a brother, Cal, who looks and dresses almost exactly like him, though he is a physicist ("Sisters and Brothers"). In the episode commentaries featured on the Season 1 DVD Set, the executive producers reveal that "Cal" was a fan from Texas who sent his photo in a fan letter. Upon seeing his resemblance to Al, the producers brought him in to be Al's brother, Cal.

text: When Al was younger, he took fencing in school and served in the Navy as a Lt (j.g.) with the Seabees, and although he wanted to see the world, he was stationed in Fallon, Nevada (interestingly enough, in the episode where Al mentions this, he uses the shibboleth pronunciation of "Nevada", which is uncommon for an outsider, especially someone living in the midwest). After finishing his military service, Al was a construction crane operator (AFL–CIO Local 324), then apparently got certified as a master plumber and carpenter before getting the job on Tool Time. Al drives a 1983 Mercury Grand Marquis station wagon which his mother passed down to him, and has put much time and effort into preserving the vehicle. While Al has similar interests of Tim such as cars, he has some rather odd interests, such as being able to deduce different types of wood by smell rather than appearance or texture.

text: Al gets along well with Tim's sons. However, just like Tim, Al has faced problems and needed to seek the advice of Wilson. Outside of his job, Al has made investments such as becoming part owner of Harry's Hardware and marketing a successful board game based on Tool Time, whose object is to avoid hospitalization.[3]

text: Al's beard[edit]

text: Al's beard is also a constant joke by Tim. In one episode where Tool Time is celebrating their fifth anniversary show, Al is shown in the first ever episode of Tool Time clean shaven, while Tim has a beard.[4]

text: Al's knowledge of tools and home improvement[edit]

text: He generally knows what he is doing more than Tim, and he seems to have a better knowledge of tools and home improvement than Tim. In the first episode of Tool Time, he was described as a "master plumber" by Tim Taylor. He also is very serious about his job, unlike Tim, who often jokes and messes up the project. Al often speaks fondly of his time as a U.S. Navy Seabee. Although Tim is the one who messes up most of the projects on Tool Time, Al is often the one who is blamed for the mishap, or is injured by the mishap. On rare occasions Al would cause a mishap of his own, but these were more due to overcalculating than Tim's attitude of "more power". Despite this, Tim and Al are good friends offstage, and Al often helps out, either by helping with home projects, or by watching his children.

text: Love life[edit]

text: Throughout the series, Al has had four different girlfriends. In season one, Al went out with Greta Post, whom he met while she was volunteering to help out during a Tool Time show. Al then showed an interest in Jill's friend Karen, but when he learned she found another man Al took it well and rebounded. He almost went out with Tim's ex-girlfriend Stacey Lewis, however, he wasn't interested in her as much as he thought. From seasons three through five, Al went out with Dr. Ilene Markham, an orthodontist who is sisters with one of Jill's co-workers. They got engaged, but they decided at the wedding that they shouldn't marry. Al met a woman named Trudy in season seven and married her in the finale episode in 1999.

text: Running gags surrounding Al[edit]

text:
His overweight and overbearing mother.
Tim jokes about Al's mom "looking for a smorgasbord".
He is always wearing flannel.
His beard.
His higher popularity over Tim
His love of Bingo.
His fanatic admiration of fellow home improvement television host Bob Vila.
Whenever Tim suggests doing something particularly stupid, dangerous or both, Al replies in deadpan fashion, "I don't think so, Tim".
When Tim would make a particularly sexist or otherwise offensive remark, Al would hold up a large sign with Tim's mailing address and say, "That's Tim Taylor, care of Tool Time, PO Box 32733, Detroit, Michigan, 48252" Sometimes Tim will rip the sign half-way in his sentence, but Al would just pick up another sign and finish.
His often unlucky relationship with women, despite (or possibly because of) him being more sensitive than Tim.

text: Wilson Wilson, Jr.[edit]

text: Wilson W. Wilson, (Earl Hindman) – Tim's neighbor and confidant. As a child, his parents did not allow him to speak to his neighbors, so he really likes talking to Tim and Jill. Wilson serves as an all-wise sage in the show, doling out advice to the Taylor family and seemingly always knowing just what to say to solve a problem. While most of his appearances were to help the Taylors, on seldom occasion someone who was in the extended family, or a nonmember, such as Al, would seek out Wilson's advice. He has traveled the globe and learned much from virtually every culture in existence. He has a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, studying "extinct languages and forgotten cultures." His house is full of artifacts along with a pet myna bird named Mozart who appeared infrequently. Wilson was married at one point, but his wife Catherine died long before the series begins (in a November 1994 episode, Wilson revealed that that month would have marked his and Catherine's 25th anniversary).

text: At first it was unclear whether "Wilson" was his first name or last, but his full name is revealed as Wilson Wilson, Jr. In Season 6, it is revealed that his cousins are the Wilsons of The Beach Boys. He has a grown niece named Willow Wilson (China Kantner), who appeared regularly in the seventh season when she moved in with him for a while. His usual greetings are "Well, hi-dee-ho ..." or "Hi ho, there neighbor" or "good neighbor" when greeting Tim, "neighborette" when greeting Jill, and "Taylor lad(s)" when greeting the Taylor boys.

text: A visual gag is that Wilson's face isn't shown in its entirety, originally (and most commonly) with the bottom half obscured by the tall privacy fence that separates the neighbors' yards. This gag is extended over the course of the series with other objects (or a beard) obscuring the bottom of his face, or the bottom half showing but the top obscured (such as by a mask), or his full face shown but covered by paint. The audience finally sees Earl Hindman's full face unobscured in the series finale's curtain call. This was based on how Tim Allen saw a next-door neighbor when he was growing up.

text: Lisa[edit]

text: Lisa (Pamela Anderson) – Binford's first "Tool Girl." A secondary cast member on Tool Time, Lisa's job was to introduce Tim and Al and to hand them any tool they requested. When Pamela Anderson chose to leave Home Improvement to pursue a role on the syndicated series Baywatch, she was written out of the series after Season 2 and it was stated that Lisa was training to be a paramedic. She returned for a guest appearance four years later, having become fully qualified.

text: Heidi Keppert[edit]

text: Heidi Keppert (Debbe Dunning) – The second "Tool Girl" (beginning in Season 3) and a master electrician.[5] Initially, the character was seen only in and around the Tool Time set. In later seasons, her personal life crossed paths with Tim and Al on a number of occasions. She gave birth to a daughter (Amy) and suffered marital problems during the show's run. In Season 8 Episode 24 (Dead Weight), Heidi reveals to Tim that her breasts twitch when she is nervous. In the last episode of the series, Heidi revealed she was pregnant for a second time. Her outfits typically showed off her very large cleavage during the "Tool Time" episodes. Tim speculated that many men came to the show just to see Heidi. It is revealed in multiple episodes that Tim's son, Brad, has a crush on her.[5] In seasons seven and eight, her role on Tool Time increased so much that she was eventually given main cast billing in the opening credits.

text: Harry Turner[edit]

text: Harry Turner (Blake Clark) – Owner of "Harry's Hardware", where Tim spent a great deal of his time (and money) and in which Al eventually became part owner. He is married  – not-so-happily  – to Delores (Shirley Prestia), and the couple bad-mouths one another behind their respective backs on every occasion (But Dolores rarely follows this rule). Also has four sons, one Dennis (David DeLuise), with whom he has a somewhat rocky relationship. In one episode Harry told Tim that he had gotten a vasectomy. In another episode it is mentioned he served in the United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War.

text: Benny Baroni[edit]

text: Benny Baroni (Jimmy Labriola) – One of Tim's buddies who hangs out at the hardware store. Benny is a bit of a slacker and notoriously known as a freeloader – his trademark being drinking coffee and eating donuts. Benny has not had a job in years, mainly because he doesn't like to work. He makes money by gambling and betting on horse races. On one episode ("A House Divided", Season 4.18) While the "Tool Time" crew is fixing up Benny's aunt's house, the structure is blown up due to Benny's negligence and is not Tim's fault; furthermore when Tim and his family are moving furniture back into the twice repaired Benny's aunt house, Benny, rather than helping out, lies back on a lawn chair to watch the others do the work. He is also known for being inconsiderate of others; at one point, he even ate at a soup kitchen regularly to avoid paying for meals. One episode ("The Look", Season 5.07) Tim was selling season Pistons tickets (Tim had 2 tickets for each game and each pair cost $100) and Benny not able or willing to buy any of the tickets kept offering to go to the games with the people who were buying them, even people he didn't even know, so he could go to the games without paying for a ticket. Ironically in a rare instance of performing earnest work, Benny once appeared on an episode of Tool Time for "Tim and Al's Fantasy Kitchen", where he was shown cutting meat inside a walk-in freezer.

text: Other recurring characters[edit]

text:
Karen (Betsy Randle) – feminist friend of Jill who is very obnoxious towards Tim, often helping Jill mock and discourage Tim. Tim finds her irritating. While she finds her rivalry with Tim innocent and harmless, she has no qualms passively accusing Tim of being unfaithful, making Jill feel insecure about their marriage. Moved to California after Season 2 - this coincided with the start of her regular role of Amy Matthews on Boy Meets World, another ABC sitcom.
Ilene Louise Markham, D.D.S. (Sherry Hursey) – an orthodontist, and Al's first serious girlfriend. On their wedding day, she and Al mutually agreed not to get married and ended their romance on a positive note. Her last appearance was in Season 6.
Marie Morton (Mariangela Pino) – neighbor of the Taylors; close friend of Jill.
Joe Morton (Robert Picardo) – Marie's overactive and obnoxious husband; the "meat man" who irritates Tim, until Morton finds a hard to find jalopy replacement part for Tim; ran out on Marie in Season 5 - this coincided with Picardo's taking the role of "The Doctor" on Star Trek: Voyager.
Jennifer Sudarski (Jessica Wesson) – Brad's first love interest who always called him "Bradley", later moved to Ohio.
Angela (Kristen Clayton) – Former girlfriend of Brad, known for being a constant motor-mouth. She dumped Brad for a guy with his own car. Brad suffered from a bout of depression because of this, but eventually rebounded.
Ashley (Leigh Ann Orsi) – girlfriend of Brad, went to boarding school from Season 5 onwards
Beth (Anndi McAfee) – Randy's first girlfriend who left town
Lauren (Courtney Peldon) – Randy's tomboy girlfriend, left for Costa Rica with him in Season 8.
Lillian "Nana" Patterson (Polly Holliday) – Jill's mother. Before Lillian's first appearance, she was joked at by Tim as being largely overweight, though in her first appearance, Lillian has become thin again, having used Tim's jokes on Tool Time as motivation. Lillian speaks with a very notable Southwestern accent and is caring and supportive to Jill whenever she has troubles.
Colonel Fred Patterson (M. Emmet Walsh) – Jill's father, died in his sleep from a heart attack in Season 6. He had a long career in the Army and his favorite movie was Patton. He somewhat got along fine with Tim, but didn't particularly respect him. He never called Tim by his name but instead called him "Hey You".
Delores Turner (Shirley Prestia) – Harry's overbearing and demanding wife; a New York Knicks fan who can devastate men with "The Look". Her worsening asthma causes Harry to sell the hardware store and move to Arizona in Season 8. Delores and Harry are shown to constantly be arguing whenever they are seen together. Delores is shown several times to work at a local coffee shop as a waitress, where she continues to be sharp-tongued to customers
Nancy Taylor (Jensen Daggett) – Wife of Marty Taylor. They are divorced in Season 8.
John Binford (Noble Willingham) – founder of Binford Tools, died early in Season 3.
Maureen "Producer" Binford (Vicki Lewis) – John Binford's overeager and annoying daughter, she ran Tool Time for a brief time during Season 2, constantly reminding Tim in a sing-song voice that she was the Producer of the show, which allowed her to cause many changes to the show that Tim hated.
Trudy McHale (Megan Cavanagh) – an electrician and heiress to her family's fortune whom Al married in the final episode.
Cal Borland (Keith Lehman) – Al's brother, a physicist.
Felix Myman (Al Fann) – professional plumber and frequent participant in Tool Time's projects.
Rock Flanagan (Casey Sander) – construction worker at K&B Construction. Somewhat loud, and charismatic, Rock always responds to guest appearances on Tool Time by saying, "It's always great to be here, Timmy!" In K&B's "all-tool band", his instrument is a grinder run over an empty oil drum.
Dwayne Hoover (Gary McGurk) – construction worker at K&B Construction. The "straight man" of K&B, he always has to interrupt Pete whenever he is about to say a story that is too revealing by saying, "This is not the time, nor the place!" In K&B's band, he plays hammers on an anvil.
Pete Bilker (Mickey Jones) – construction worker at K&B Construction. Whenever he is called by name from Rock, Pete usually responds, "That would be me." In K&B's band, he plays empty plastic fuel cans as drums, using screwdrivers as drumsticks.
Carrie Patterson (Tudi Roche – the real-life wife of Richard Karn), Jill's sister, a world-traveling photographer.
Willow Branch Leaf Wilson (China Kantner) – Wilson's laid back niece, just goes by Willow, saying she "pruned it back".
Lucille Taylor (Bonnie Bartlett) – Tim's widowed mother.
Bud Harper (Charlie Robinson) – head of Binford Tools, Tim's boss. Bud interacts a lot with Tim and Al, even offering Tim season tickets to the Detroit Pistons. He does not particularly respect Al, even at one point suggesting Al get fired, however Tim defended Al from this.
Jason (Jarrad Paul) – Eddie Haskell-like friend of Brad, often claims to be a fan of Tool Time even though he's never actually seen the show and gains favor with Tim by pretending to ask for advice about tools.
Samantha Hayes (Maggie Lawson) – A college student who dated Brad, although she was four years his senior, which troubled Jill and Tim. In one episode, she and Brad impulsively decided to get married at their young age, but Tim and Jill successfully tricked them to realize their mistake.
Patty (Tammy Lauren) – Jill's friend in season six and seven
Morgan Wondell (Danny Zorn) – The much hated producer of Tool Time during the final season. He apparently has no interest in tool shows, and constantly made changes to the show's premise, even staging a Jerry Springer Show-like riot in the audience, and planning to stage more destructive accidents. Rather than let Wondell turn their show into "Trash Time", Tim, Al, and Heidi quit in the series finale.
Milton (Milton Canady) – friend of Tim, often a guest on Tool Time; when he's around, people tend to make gay references, leading to him snapping "Hey, I don't go for that sort of thing!".
Art Leonard (Dick O'Neill) – Tim's old shop teacher who inspired him to enter the world of tools; stops by several times; at one point has a fling with Tim's mother.
George Sparky Henderson (Patrick Cronin) – friend of Tim and fellow car enthusiast.
Antonio (Vasili Bogazianos) – a sarcastic waiter who is always seen serving the Taylors at high-class restaurants; constantly jokes about the Taylors being cheap.
Alma Borland – Al's unseen, overbearing, obese mother; is the butt of many of Tim's jokes; dies of a sudden heart attack in Season 8.
Ronny (Kaylan Romero) – Mark's goth friend in season 7. Almost never speaks a word and constantly disturbs Tim and Jill with his silent but haunting demeanor.


document_title: List of shopping malls in Texas

question_text: what is the biggest shopping mall in texas

root

text: List of shopping malls in Texas

text: Shopping malls by region[edit]

text: Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex[edit]

text:
mall name
location
Gross Leasable Area
sq. feet / (m²)
total stores

NorthPark Center
North Dallas
2,000,000 sq ft (185,800 m2)*[2]
235

North East Mall
South Hurst
1,749,000 sq ft (162,500 m2)*[3]
173[4]

Dallas Midtown
North Dallas
1,633,286 sq ft (151,700 m2)[5]
> 130

Stonebriar Centre
Frisco
1,600,000 sq ft (148,600 m2)[6]
165

Grapevine Mills
Grapevine
1,600,000 sq ft (148,600 m2)[7]
200+

The Parks at Arlington (Parks Mall)
Arlington
1,510,000 sq ft (140,300 m2)[8]
180

Galleria Dallas
North Dallas
1,400,000 sq ft (130,100 m2)[9]
200+

The Shops at Willow Bend
Plano
1,391,000 sq ft (129,200 m2)[10]
125

Ridgmar Mall
West Fort Worth
1,269,135 sq ft (117,900 m2)[11]
> 80

Town East Mall
Mesquite
1,250,000 sq ft (116,100 m2)[12]
185

Collin Creek Mall
Plano
1,118,000 sq ft (103,900 m2)[13]
135

Southwest Center Mall
South Dallas
1,084,528 sq ft (100,800 m2)[14]
112

La Gran Plaza de Fort Worth
South Fort Worth, Texas
1,077,782 sq ft (100,100 m2)[15]
200+

Vista Ridge Mall
Lewisville
1,046,000 sq ft (97,200 m2)[16]
160

Irving Mall
Irving
1,044,000 sq ft (97,000 m2)[17]
120[18]

Firewheel Town Center
Garland
1,004,000 sq ft (93,300 m2)[19]
123

Hulen Mall
South Fort Worth
942,000 sq ft (87,500 m2)[20]
120

Southlake Town Square
Southlake
861,887 sq ft (80,072 m2) [21]
120

Golden Triangle Mall
Denton
764,719 sq ft (71,000 m2)[22]
91

Hillside Village
Cedar Hill
615,000 sq ft (57,100 m2)[23]
65

Allen Premium Outlets
Allen
565,000 sq ft (52,500 m2)[24]
100+[25]

The Shops at Legacy
Plano
520,000 sq ft (48,300 m2)[26]
33[27]

*Denotes statistic based on information that will be valid after planned construction/renovation; shown value may be higher than current actual value.

tag: table

text: Greater Houston[edit]

text:
mall name
location
retail space
sq. feet / (m²)
total stores

The Galleria
Uptown, Houston
2,400,000 sq ft (223,000 m2)
400[28]

Memorial City Mall
Memorial City, Houston
1,700,000 sq ft (157,900 m2)
145

Willowbrook Mall
Willowbrook, Houston
1,530,000 sq ft (142,100 m2)
160

The Woodlands Mall
The Woodlands
1,435,000 sq ft (133,300 m2)
160

Greenspoint Mall
Greenspoint, Houston
1,391,432 sq ft (129,300 m2)[29]
96

Deerbrook Mall
Humble
1,280,000 sq ft (118,900 m2)
144

Baybrook Mall
Clear Lake, Houston
1,210,000 sq ft (112,400 m2)
175

Katy Mills
Katy
1,201,104 sq ft (111,586.2 m2)[30]
200

San Jacinto Mall
Baytown
1,150,000 sq ft (106,800 m2)
130

First Colony Mall
Sugar Land
1,110,000 sq ft (103,100 m2)
150

West Oaks Mall
Alief, Houston
1,100,000 sq ft (102,200 m2)
64

PlazAmericas formerly known as Sharpstown Mall
Sharpstown, Houston
860,000 sq ft (79,900 m2)
70

Almeda Mall
Genoa, Houston
825,000 sq ft (76,600 m2)
60

Mall of the Mainland (closed except Sears, Palais Royal, and Cinemark)
Texas City
800,000 sq ft (74,300 m2)
49

Northwest Mall (closed)
Lazybrook/Timbergrove, Houston
794,092 sq ft (73,800 m2)
60

Brazos Mall
Lake Jackson
680,000 sq ft (63,200 m2)
74

River Oaks District
Neartown, Houston
252,000 sq ft (23,400 m2)[31][32]
31

text: San Antonio[edit]

text:
mall name
location
Gross Leasable Area
sq. feet / (m²)
total stores

The Shops at La Cantera
Northwest San Antonio
1,310,777 sq ft (121,800 m2)
200+

North Star Mall
North Central San Antonio
1,257,000 sq ft (116,800 m2)
200+

The Rim Shopping Center
Northwest San Antonio
1,812,492 sq ft (168,400 m2)
106+

Ingram Park Mall
Northwest San Antonio
1,130,000 sq ft (105,000 m2)
150+

Rivercenter
Downtown San Antonio
1,060,000 sq ft (98,500 m2)
100+

Alamo Quarry Market
North San Antonio
1,130,000 sq ft (105,000 m2)
95+

Wonderland of the Americas
Balcones Heights
700,000 sq ft (65,000 m2)
40+

Rolling Oaks Mall
Northeast San Antonio
889,000 sq ft (82,600 m2)
100+

South Park Mall
South San Antonio
790,000 sq ft (73,400 m2)
85

text: Enclosed shopping malls in Texas, outside of the three largest metropolitan areas[edit]

text: Austin[edit]

text:
Barton Creek Square - South Austin
Lakeline Mall - North Austin

tag: ul

text: El Paso[edit]

text:
Bassett Place - El Paso
Cielo Vista Mall - El Paso
Sunland Park Mall - El Paso

text: Corpus Christi[edit]

text:
La Palmera - Corpus Christi
Sunrise Mall - Corpus Christi

text: Rio Grande Valley[edit]

text:
Sunrise Mall - Brownsville
Amigoland Mall - Brownsville
Valle Vista Mall - Harlingen
La Plaza Mall - McAllen
Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets - Mercedes

text: Killeen-Temple[edit]

text:
Killeen Mall - Killeen
Temple Mall - Temple

text: Midland-Odessa[edit]

text:
Midland Park Mall - Midland[33]
Music City Mall - Odessa

text: Beaumont-Port Arthur[edit]

text:
Central Mall - Port Arthur
Parkdale Mall - Beaumont

text: Other, listed By 2010 metropolitan area size[edit]

text:
South Plains Mall - Lubbock (290,002 - metropolitan area population)
Longview Mall - Longview (282,962)
Broadway Square Mall - Tyler (264,521)
Mall del Norte - Laredo (256,496)
Westgate Mall - Amarillo (253,823)
Richland Mall - Waco (238,564)
Post Oak Mall - College Station (231,623)
Mall of Abilene - Abilene (166,416)
Sikes Senter - Wichita Falls (150,261)
Central Mall - Texarkana (136,552)
Midway Mall - Sherman (121,419)
Victoria Mall - Victoria (116,230)
Sunset Mall - San Angelo (113,443)
Lufkin Mall - Lufkin (87,669)
West Hill Mall - Huntsville (66,296)
Mall de Las Aguilas - Eagle Pass (55,405)
Plaza del Sol Mall - Del Rio (49,106)
Heartland Mall - Brownwood (38,186)

tag: p


document_title: Eiffel Tower

question_text: when did the construction of the eiffel tower start and end

question_tokens: when did the construction of the eiffel tower start and end

text: Eiffel Tower

text: History

text: Origin

text: The design of the Eiffel Tower is attributed to Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two senior engineers working for the Compagnie des Établissements Eiffel. It was envisioned after discussion about a suitable centrepiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, a world's fair to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. Eiffel openly acknowledged that inspiration for a tower came from the Latting Observatory built in New York City in 1853.[4] In May 1884, working at home, Koechlin made a sketch of their idea, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals".[5] Eiffel initially showed little enthusiasm, but he did approve further study, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre, the head of company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base of the tower, a glass pavilion to the first level, and other embellishments.

text: The new version gained Eiffel's support: he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier, and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885, Eiffel presented his plans to the Société des Ingénieurs Civils; after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying the tower would symbolise,

text: Not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude.[6]

text: Little progress was made until 1886, when Jules Grévy was re-elected as president of France and Édouard Lockroy was appointed as minister for trade. A budget for the exposition was passed and, on 1 May, Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition being held for a centrepiece to the exposition, which effectively made the selection of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion, as entries had to include a study for a 300 m (980 ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars.[6] (A 300-meter tower was then considered a herculean engineering effort). On 12 May, a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals, which, a month later, decided that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or lacking in details.

text: After some debate about the exact location of the tower, a contract was signed on 8 January 1887. This was signed by Eiffel acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, and granted him 1.5 million francs toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated 6.5 million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the next 20 years. He later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.[7]

text: Artists' protest

text: The proposed tower had been a subject of controversy, drawing criticism from those who did not believe it was feasible and those who objected on artistic grounds. These objections were an expression of a long-standing debate in France about the relationship between architecture and engineering. It came to a head as work began at the Champ de Mars: a "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the arts, such as Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet. A petition called "Artists against the Eiffel Tower" was sent to the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, Charles Alphand, and it was published by Le Temps on 14 February 1887:

text: We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection … of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal.[8]

text: Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian pyramids: "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris?"[9] These criticisms were also dealt with by Édouard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, ironically saying,[10] "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and he explained that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before, and construction on the tower was already under way.

text: Indeed, Garnier was a member of the Tower Commission that had examined the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"[11]

text: Some of the protesters changed their minds when the tower was built; others remained unconvinced.[12] Guy de Maupassant supposedly ate lunch in the tower's restaurant every day because it was the one place in Paris where the tower was not visible.[13]

text: By 1918, it had become a symbol of Paris and of France after Guillaume Apollinaire wrote a nationalist poem in the shape of the tower (a calligram) to express his feelings about the war against Germany.[14] Today, it is widely considered to be a remarkable piece of structural art, and is often featured in films and literature.

text: Construction

text: Work on the foundations started on 28 January 1887.[15] Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, with each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg. The west and north legs, being closer to the river Seine, were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft)[16] to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20 ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a block of limestone with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork.

text: Each shoe was anchored to the stonework by a pair of bolts 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. The foundations were completed on 30 June, and the erection of the ironwork began. The visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that took place behind the scenes: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed.[17] The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within 0.1 mm (0.0039 in) and angles worked out to one second of arc. The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from a factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, with the bolts being replaced with rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit, it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all, 18,038 pieces were joined together using 2.5 million rivets.[15]

text: At first the legs were constructed as cantilevers, but about halfway to the first level, construction was paused in order to create a substantial timber scaffold. This renewed concerns about the structural integrity of the tower, and sensational headlines such as "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel Has Gone Mad: He Has Been Confined in an Asylum" appeared in the tabloid press.[18] At this stage, a small "creeper" crane designed to move up the tower was installed in each leg. They made use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in the four legs. The critical stage of joining the legs at the first level was completed by the end of March 1888.[15] Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost attention to detail, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments in order to precisely align the legs; hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and the legs were intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold. Although construction involved 300 on-site employees,[15] only one person died, due to Eiffel's safety precautions and the use of movable gangways, guardrails and screens.[19]

text:
The start of the erection of the metalwork.

7 December 1887: Construction of the legs with scaffolding.

20 March 1888: Completion of the first level.

15 May 1888: Start of construction on the second stage.

21 August 1888: Completion of the second level.

26 December 1888: Construction of the upper stage.

15 March 1889: Construction of the cupola.

text: Lifts

text: Equipping the tower with adequate and safe passenger lifts was a major concern of the government commission overseeing the Exposition. Although some visitors could be expected to climb to the first level, or even the second, lifts clearly had to be the main means of ascent.[20]

text: Constructing lifts to reach the first level was relatively straightforward: the legs were wide enough at the bottom and so nearly straight that they could contain a straight track, and a contract was given to the French company Roux, Combaluzier & Lepape for two lifts to be fitted in the east and west legs.[21] Roux, Combaluzier & Lepape used a pair of endless chains with rigid, articulated links to which the car was attached. Lead weights on some links of the upper or return sections of the chains counterbalanced most of the car's weight. The car was pushed up from below, not pulled up from above: to prevent the chain buckling, it was enclosed in a conduit. At the bottom of the run, the chains passed around 3.9 m (12 ft 10 in) diameter sprockets. Smaller sprockets at the top guided the chains.[21]

text: Installing lifts to the second level was more of a challenge because a straight track was impossible. No French company wanted to undertake the work. The European branch of Otis Brothers & Company submitted a proposal but this was rejected: the fair's charter ruled out the use of any foreign material in the construction of the tower. The deadline for bids was extended but still no French companies put themselves forward, and eventually the contract was given to Otis in July 1887.[22] Otis were confident they would eventually be given the contract and had already started creating designs.

text: The car was divided into two superimposed compartments, each holding 25 passengers, with the lift operator occupying an exterior platform on the first level. Motive power was provided by an inclined hydraulic ram 12.67 m (41 ft 7 in) long and 96.5 cm (38.0 in) in diameter in the tower leg with a stroke of 10.83 m (35 ft 6 in): this moved a carriage carrying six sheaves. Five fixed sheaves were mounted higher up the leg, producing an arrangement similar to a block and tackle but acting in reverse, multiplying the stroke of the piston rather than the force generated. The hydraulic pressure in the driving cylinder was produced by a large open reservoir on the second level. After being exhausted from the cylinder, the water was pumped back up to the reservoir by two pumps in the machinery room at the base of the south leg. This reservoir also provided power to the lifts to the first level.

text: The original lifts for the journey between the second and third levels were supplied by Léon Edoux. A pair of 81 m (266 ft) hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level, reaching nearly halfway up to the third level. One lift car was mounted on top of these rams: cables ran from the top of this car up to sheaves on the third level and back down to a second car. Each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway by means of a short gangway. The 10-ton cars each held 65 passengers.[23]

text: Inauguration and the 1889 exposition

text: The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and, on 31 March, Eiffel celebrated by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower.[12] Because the lifts were not yet in operation, the ascent was made by foot, and took over an hour, with Eiffel stopping frequently to explain various features. Most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels, but a few, including the structural engineer, Émile Nouguier, the head of construction, Jean Compagnon, the President of the City Council, and reporters from Le Figaro and Le Monde Illustré, completed the ascent. At 2:35 pm, Eiffel hoisted a large Tricolour to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired at the first level.[24]

text:
There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and facilities, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the exposition on 6 May; even then, the lifts had not been completed. The tower was an instant success with the public, and nearly 30,000 visitors made the 1,710-step climb to the top before the lifts entered service on 26 May.[25]
Tickets cost 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second, and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays,[26] and by the end of the exhibition there had been 1,896,987 visitors.[3]

text: After dark, the tower was lit by hundreds of gas lamps, and a beacon sent out three beams of red, white and blue light. Two searchlights mounted on a circular rail were used to illuminate various buildings of the exposition. The daily opening and closing of the exposition were announced by a cannon at the top.

text: On the second level, the French newspaper Le Figaro had an office and a printing press, where a special souvenir edition, Le Figaro de la Tour, was made. There was also a pâtisserie.

text: At the top, there was a post office where visitors could send letters and postcards as a memento of their visit. Graffitists were also catered for: sheets of paper were mounted on the walls each day for visitors to record their impressions of the tower. Gustave Eiffel described some of the responses as vraiment curieuse ("truly curious").[27]

text: Famous visitors to the tower included the Prince of Wales, Sarah Bernhardt, "Buffalo Bill" Cody (his Wild West show was an attraction at the exposition) and Thomas Edison.[25] Eiffel invited Edison to his private apartment at the top of the tower, where Edison presented him with one of his phonographs, a new invention and one of the many highlights of the exposition.[28] Edison signed the guestbook with this message:

text: To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.

text: Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years. It was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it should be easy to dismantle) but as the tower proved to be valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit.

text: Eiffel made use of his apartment at the top of the tower to carry out meteorological observations, and also used the tower to perform experiments on the action of air resistance on falling bodies.[29]

text: Subsequent events

text: For the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the lifts in the east and west legs were replaced by lifts running as far as the second level constructed by the French firm Fives-Lille. These had a compensating mechanism to keep the floor level as the angle of ascent changed at the first level, and were driven by a similar hydraulic mechanism to the Otis lifts, although this was situated at the base of the tower. Hydraulic pressure was provided by pressurised accumulators located near this mechanism.[22] At the same time the lift in the north pillar was removed and replaced by a staircase to the first level. The layout of both first and second levels was modified, with the space available for visitors on the second level. The original lift in the south pillar was removed 13 years later.

text: On 19 October 1901, Alberto Santos-Dumont, flying his No.6 airship, won a 100,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St. Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back in less than half an hour.[30]

text: Many innovations took place at the Eiffel Tower in the early 20th century. In 1910, Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are known today as cosmic rays.[31] Just two years later, on 4 February 1912, Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping from the first level of the tower (a height of 57 metres) to demonstrate his parachute design.[32] In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, a radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications, seriously hindering their advance on Paris and contributing to the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne.[33] From 1925 to 1934, illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.[citation needed] In April 1935, the tower was used to make experimental low-resolution television transmissions, using a shortwave transmitter of 200 watts power. On 17 November, an improved 180-line transmitter was installed.[34]

text: On two separate but related occasions in 1925, the con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal.[35] A year later, in February 1926, pilot Leon Collet was killed trying to fly under the tower. His aircraft became entangled in an aerial belonging to a wireless station.[36] A bust of Gustave Eiffel by Antoine Bourdelle was unveiled at the base of the north leg on 2 May 1929.[37] In 1930, the tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building in New York City was completed.[38] In 1938, the decorative arcade around the first level was removed.[39]

text: Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French. The tower was closed to the public during the occupation and the lifts were not repaired until 1946.[40] In 1940, German soldiers had to climb the tower to hoist a swastika-centered Reichskriegsflagge,[41] but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one.[42] When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. When the Allies were nearing Paris in August 1944, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order.[43] On 25 June, before the Germans had been driven out of Paris, the German flag was replaced with a Tricolour by two men from the French Naval Museum, who narrowly beat three men led by Lucien Sarniguet, who had lowered the Tricolour on 13 June 1940 when Paris fell to the Germans.[40]

text: A fire started in the television transmitter on 3 January 1956, damaging the top of the tower. Repairs took a year, and in 1957, the present radio aerial was added to the top.[44] In 1964, the Eiffel Tower was officially declared to be a historical monument by the Minister of Cultural Affairs, André Malraux.[45] A year later, an additional lift system was installed in the north pillar.[46]

text: According to interviews, in 1967, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company operating the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored in its original location.[47]

text: In 1982, the original lifts between the second and third levels were replaced after 97 years in service. These had been closed to the public between November and March because the water in the hydraulic drive tended to freeze. The new cars operate in pairs, with one counterbalancing the other, and perform the journey in one stage, reducing the journey time from eight minutes to less than two minutes. At the same time, two new emergency staircases were installed, replacing the original spiral staircases. In 1983, the south pillar was fitted with an electrically driven Otis lift to serve the Jules Verne restaurant.[citation needed] The Fives-Lille lifts in the east and west legs, fitted in 1899, were extensively refurbished in 1986. The cars were replaced, and a computer system was installed to completely automate the lifts. The motive power was moved from the water hydraulic system to a new electrically driven oil-filled hydraulic system, and the original water hydraulics were retained solely as a counterbalance system.[46] A service lift was added to the south pillar for moving small loads and maintenance personnel three years later.

text: Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza under the tower on 31 March 1984.[48] In 1987, A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the police.[49] On 27 October 1991, Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Hervé Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic figures while bungee jumping from the second floor of the tower.[50] Facing the Champ de Mars, Devaux used an electric winch between figures to go back up to the second floor. When firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth jump.[citation needed]

text: For its "Countdown to the Year 2000" celebration on 31 December 1999, flashing lights and high-powered searchlights were installed on the tower. Fireworks were set off all over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. The searchlights on top of the tower made it a beacon in Paris's night sky, and 20,000 flashing bulbs gave the tower a sparkly appearance for five minutes every hour on the hour.[51]

text: The lights sparkled blue for several nights to herald the new millennium On 31 December 2000. The sparkly lighting continued for 18 months until July 2001. The sparkling lights were turned on again on 21 June 2003, and the display was planned to last for 10 years before they needed replacing.[52]

text: The tower received its 200,000,000th guest on 28 November 2002.[53] The tower has operated at its maximum capacity of about 7 million visitors since 2003.[54] In 2004, the Eiffel Tower began hosting a seasonal ice rink on the first level.[55] A glass floor was installed on the first level during the 2014 refurbishment.[56]

text: Design

text: Material

text: The puddled iron (wrought iron) of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tons,[57] and the addition of lifts, shops and antennae have brought the total weight to approximately 10,100 tons.[58] As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tons of metal in the structure were melted down, it would fill the square base, 125 metres (410 ft) on each side, to a depth of only 6.25 cm (2.46 in) assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tons per cubic metre.[59] Additionally, a cubic box surrounding the tower (324 m x 125 m x 125 m) would contain 6,200 tons of air, weighing almost as much as the iron itself. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7 in) due to thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.[60]

text: Wind considerations

text: When it was built, many were shocked by the tower's daring form. Eiffel was accused of trying to create something artistic with no regard to the principles of engineering. However, Eiffel and his team – experienced bridge builders – understood the importance of wind forces, and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world, they had to be sure it could withstand them. In an interview with the newspaper Le Temps published on 14 February 1887, Eiffel said:

text: Is it not true that the very conditions which give strength also conform to the hidden rules of harmony? … Now to what phenomenon did I have to give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be … will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.[61]

text: He used graphical methods to determine the strength of the tower and empirical evidence to account for the effects of wind, rather than a mathematical formula. Close examination of the tower reveals a basically exponential shape.[62] All parts of the tower were over-designed to ensure maximum resistance to wind forces. The top half was even assumed to have no gaps in the latticework.[63] In the years since it was completed, engineers have put forward various mathematical hypotheses in an attempt to explain the success of the design. The most recent, devised in 2004 after letters sent by Eiffel to the French Society of Civil Engineers in 1885 were translated into English, is described as a non-linear integral equation based on counteracting the wind pressure on any point of the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point.[62]

text: The Eiffel Tower sways by up to 9 centimetres (3.5 in) in the wind.[64]

text: Accommodation

text: When originally built, the first level contained three restaurants—one French, one Russian and one Flemish—and an "Anglo-American Bar". After the exposition closed, the Flemish restaurant was converted to a 250-seat theatre. A promenade 2.6-metre (8 ft 6 in) wide ran around the outside of the first level. At the top, there were laboratories for various experiments, and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests, which is now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike mannequins of Eiffel and some of his notable guests.[65]

text: In May 2016, an apartment was created on the first level to accommodate four competition winners during the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament in Paris in June. The apartment has a kitchen, two bedrooms, a lounge, and views of Paris landmarks including the Seine, the Sacre Coeur, and the Arc de Triomphe.[66]

text: Passenger lifts

text: The arrangement of the lifts has been changed several times during the tower's history. Given the elasticity of the cables and the time taken to align the cars with the landings, each lift, in normal service, takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip, spending an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each level. The average journey time between levels is 1 minute. The original hydraulic mechanism is on public display in a small museum at the base of the east and west legs. Because the mechanism requires frequent lubrication and maintenance, public access is often restricted. The rope mechanism of the north tower can be seen as visitors exit the lift.[citation needed]

text: Engraved names

text: Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower the names of 72 French scientists, engineers and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions to the building of the tower. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protest. At the beginning of the 20th century, the engravings were painted over, but they were restored in 1986–87 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company operating the tower.[67]

text: Aesthetics

text: The tower is painted in three shades: lighter at the top, getting progressively darker towards the bottom to complement the Parisian sky.[68] It was originally reddish brown; this changed in 1968 to a bronze colour known as "Eiffel Tower Brown".[69]

text: The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grill-work arches, added in Sauvestre's sketches, which served to make the tower look more substantial and to make a more impressive entrance to the exposition.[70]

text: A pop-culture movie cliché is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower.[71] In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to seven storeys, only a small number of tall buildings have a clear view of the tower.[citation needed]

text: Maintenance

text: Maintenance of the tower includes applying 60 tons of paint every seven years to prevent it from rusting. The tower has been completely repainted at least 19 times since it was built. Lead paint was still being used as recently as 2001 when the practice was stopped out of concern for the environment.[52]

text: Tourism

text: Transport

text: The nearest Paris Métro station is Bir-Hakeim and the nearest RER station is Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel.[72] The tower itself is located at the intersection of the quai Branly and the Pont d'Iéna.

text: Popularity

text: More than 250 million people have visited the tower since it was completed in 1889.[3] In 2015, there were 6.91 million visitors.[73] The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world.[74] An average of 25,000 people ascend the tower every day which can result in long queues.[75]

text: Restaurants

text: The tower has two restaurants: Le 58 Tour Eiffel on the first level, and Le Jules Verne, a gourmet restaurant with its own lift on the second level. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide. It was run by the multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse from 2007 to 2017.[76] Starting May 2019, it will be managed by three star chef Frédéric Anton.[77] It owes its name to the famous science-fiction writer Jules Verne. Additionally, there is a champagne bar at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

text: Replicas

text: As one of the most iconic landmarks in the world, the Eiffel Tower has been the inspiration for the creation of many replicas and similar towers. An early example is Blackpool Tower in England. The mayor of Blackpool, Sir John Bickerstaffe, was so impressed on seeing the Eiffel Tower at the 1889 exposition that he commissioned a similar tower to be built in his town. It opened in 1894 and is 158.1 metres (518 ft) tall.[78] Tokyo Tower in Japan, built as a communications tower in 1958, was also inspired by the Eiffel Tower.[79]

text: There are various scale models of the tower in the United States, including a half-scale version at the Paris Las Vegas, Nevada, one in Paris, Texas built in 1993, and two 1:3 scale models at Kings Island, Ohio, and Kings Dominion, Virginia, amusement parks opened in 1972 and 1975 respectively. Two 1:3 scale models can be found in China, one in Durango, Mexico that was donated by the local French community, and several across Europe.[80]

text: In 2011, the TV show Pricing the Priceless on the National Geographic Channel speculated that a full-size replica of the tower would cost approximately US$480 million to build.[81] Ironically, if accurate, that means that the replica would cost more than ten times that of the original (with the original costing nearly 8 million in 1890 Francs; ~US$40 million in 2018 dollars).

text: Communications

text: The tower has been used for making radio transmissions since the beginning of the 20th century. Until the 1950s, sets of aerial wires ran from the cupola to anchors on the Avenue de Suffren and Champ de Mars. These were connected to longwave transmitters in small bunkers. In 1909, a permanent underground radio centre was built near the south pillar, which still exists today. On 20 November 1913, the Paris Observatory, using the Eiffel Tower as an aerial, exchanged wireless signals with the United States Naval Observatory, which used an aerial in Arlington, Virginia. The object of the transmissions was to measure the difference in longitude between Paris and Washington, D.C.[82] Today, radio and digital television signals are transmitted from the Eiffel Tower.

text: FM radio

text:
Frequency

kW

Service

87.8 MHz

10

France Inter

89.0 MHz

10

RFI Paris

89.9 MHz

6

TSF Jazz

90.4 MHz

10

Nostalgie

90.9 MHz

4

Chante France

text: Digital television

text: A television antenna was first installed on the tower in 1957, increasing its height by 18.7 m (61.4 ft). Work carried out in 2000 added a further 5.3 m (17.4 ft), giving the current height of 324 m (1,063 ft).[52] Analogue television signals from the Eiffel Tower ceased on 8 March 2011.

text:
Frequency

VHF

UHF

kW

Service

182.25 MHz

6

—

100

Canal+

479.25 MHz

—

22

500

France 2

503.25 MHz

—

25

500

TF1

527.25 MHz

—

28

500

France 3

543.25 MHz

—

30

100

France 5

567.25 MHz

—

33

100

M6

text: Illumination copyright

text: The tower and its image have long been in the public domain.[83] In June 1990 a French court ruled that a special lighting display on the tower in 1989 to mark the tower's 100th anniversary was an "original visual creation" protected by copyright. The Court of Cassation, France's judicial court of last resort, upheld the ruling in March 1992.[84] The Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE) now considers any illumination of the tower to be a separate work of art that falls under copyright.[85] As a result, the SNTE alleges that it is illegal to publish contemporary photographs of the lit tower at night without permission in France and some other countries for commercial use.[86][87]

text: The imposition of copyright has been controversial. The Director of Documentation for what was then called the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SNTE), Stéphane Dieu, commented in 2005: "It is really just a way to manage commercial use of the image, so that it isn't used in ways [of which] we don't approve".[88] SNTE made over €1 million from copyright fees in 2002.[89] However, it could also be used to restrict the publication of tourist photographs of the tower at night, as well as hindering non-profit and semi-commercial publication of images of the illuminated tower.[83]

text: French doctrine and jurisprudence allows pictures incorporating a copyrighted work as long as their presence is incidental or accessory to the subject being represented,[90] a reasoning akin to the de minimis rule. Therefore, SETE may be unable to claim copyright on photographs of Paris which happen to include the lit tower.

text: Taller structures

text: The Eiffel Tower was the world's tallest structure when completed in 1889, a distinction it retained until 1929 when the Chrysler Building in New York City was topped out.[91] The tower has lost its standing both as the world's tallest structure and the world's tallest lattice tower but retains its status as the tallest freestanding (non-guyed) structure in France.

text: Lattice towers taller than the Eiffel Tower

text:
Name

Pinnacle height

Year

Country

Town

Remarks

Tokyo Skytree
634 m (2,080 ft)
2011
Japan
Tokyo

Kiev TV Tower
385 m (1,263 ft)
1973
Ukraine
Kiev

Dragon Tower
336 m (1,102 ft)
2000
China
Harbin

Tokyo Tower
333 m (1,093 ft)
1958
Japan
Tokyo

text: Structures in France taller than the Eiffel Tower

text:
Name

Pinnacle height

Year

Structure type

Town

Remarks

Longwave transmitter Allouis

350 m (1,150 ft)

1974

Guyed mast

Allouis

HWU transmitter

350 m (1,150 ft)

?

Guyed mast

Rosnay

Military VLF transmitter; multiple masts

Viaduc de Millau

343 m (1,125 ft)

2004

Bridge pillar

Millau

TV Mast Niort-Maisonnay

330 m (1,080 ft)

1978

Guyed mast

Niort

Transmitter Le Mans-Mayet

342 m (1,122 ft)

1993

Guyed mast

Mayet

La Regine transmitter

330 m (1,080 ft)

1973

Guyed mast

Saissac

Military VLF transmitter

Transmitter Roumoules

330 m (1,080 ft)

1974

Guyed mast

Roumoules

Spare transmission mast for longwave; insulated against ground


document_title: Social class in ancient Rome

question_text: the social class that struggled with plebeians for control of the roman empire

text: Social class in ancient Rome

text: Patricians and plebeians[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: In the Roman Kingdom and the early Roman Republic the most important division in Roman society was between the patricians and the plebeians. The patricians were a small elite whose ancestry was traced to the first Senate established by Romulus,[3] who monopolised political power. The plebeians comprised the majority of Roman citizens (see below). Adult males who were not Roman citizens, whether free or slave, fall outside this division. Women and children were also not citizens, but took the social status of their father or husband, which granted them various rights and protections not available to the women and children of men of lower rank.

text: The distinction between patricians and plebeians in Ancient Rome was based purely on birth. Although modern writers often portray patricians as rich and powerful families who managed to secure power over the less-fortunate plebeian families, plebeians and patricians among the senatorial class were equally wealthy. As civil rights for plebeians increased during the middle and late Roman Republic, many plebeian families had attained wealth and power while some traditionally patrician families had fallen into poverty and obscurity.  The first Roman Emperor, Augustus, was of plebeian origin, as were many of his successors. By the Late Empire, few members of the Senate were from the original patrician families, most of which had died out. Rome continued to have a hierarchical class system, but it was no longer dominated by the distinction between patricians and plebeians.

text: Originally, all public offices were open only to patricians, and the classes could not intermarry. Plebeians and Patricians were always at odds due to the fact that Plebeians wanted to increase their power.[4] A series of social struggles (see Conflict of the Orders) saw the plebs secede from the city on three occasions, the last in 297 BC, until their demands were met. They won the right to stand for office, the abolition of the intermarriage law, and the creation of office of tribune of the plebs. This office, founded in 494 BC as a result of a plebeian secession, was the main legal bulwark against the powers of the patrician class, and only plebeians were eligible. The tribunes originally had the power to protect any plebeian from a patrician magistrate. Later revolts forced the Senate to grant the tribunes additional powers, such as the right to veto legislation. A tribune’s person was sacrosanct, and he was obliged to keep an open house at all times while in office. Some patricians, notably Clodius Pulcher in the late 60s BC, petitioned to be assigned plebeian status, in order to accumulate the political influence among the people that the office of tribune afforded. The conflict between the classes came to a climax in 287 BC when patricians and plebeians were declared equal under the law.

text: Following these changes the distinction between patrician and plebeian status became less important, and by the Late Republic the only patrician prerogatives were certain priesthoods. Over time, some patrician families declined, some plebeian families rose in status, and the composition of the ruling class changed. A plebeian who was the first of his line to become consul was known as a novus homo (“new man”), and he and his descendants became “noble” (nobiles). Notable examples of novi homines are the seven-time consul Marius, and Cicero, whose rise was unusual in that it was driven by his oratorical and intellectual abilities rather than, as with Marius, military success. During the Empire, patricius became a title of nobility bestowed by emperors.[5][6]

text: Property-based classes[edit]

text: The census divided citizens into six complex classes based on property. The richest were the senatorial class, who during the Late Republic had to be worth at least 400,000 sestertii, the same as the equites; when Augustus reformed the senate during the first years of the Principate, he raised the property requirement to 1,000,000 sestertii.[7] The wealth of the senatorial class was based on ownership of large agricultural estates, and by custom members did not engage in commercial activity.

text: Below the senatores in rank, but above others were the equites (“equestrians” or “knights”), with 400,000 sestertii, who could engage in commerce and formed an influential business class. Certain political and quasi-political positions were filled by equites, including tax farming and, under the Principate, leadership of the Praetorian Guard. Below the equites were three more classes of property-owning citizens; and lastly the proletarii, whose property was valued below 11,000 asses.[8]

text:
Analysis of Roman Centuriate Organisation 509-241 BC *[9]

Class

Census property rating
money (property)

Electoralassemblyvotes perperson

Military Equipment
(self-supplied)

Patricians (historical aristocracy)

Senatores

400,000 sestertii (1,000,0000 sestertii)

Equites**

400,000 sestertii

Horse, ...

Plebeians (commoners)

First (triarii)

100,000 As (100 iugera)

2

Helm, round shield, cuirass, greaves, sword, and spear.

Second (principes)

75,000 As (75 iugera)

1

Helm, round shield, greaves, sword and spear.

Third (hastati)

50,000 As (50 iugera)

1

Helm, oblong shield, sword and spear.

Fourth (leves)

25,000 As (25 iugera)

1

Oblong shield, spear or sword, javelin

Fifth

11,000 As (11 iugera)12,500 As (12 iugera)

1

Slings (accensi) or javelins (velites)

Proles (landless poor)

Proletarii

below 11,000 asses

Fleets (oarsmen)

* This was the system of the Centuriate Assembly and was the practice of the Servian constitution. Information arranged by Tim Cornell based on the works of Livy, Polybius, and Dionysius of Hallicarnasus. For a contrasting version of the same or similar data, see the table in the Equites article.

** The equites class was available for both plebeians and patricians, and favored by ambitious young men in both groups.

At the period this was valid 1 Denarius was worth about 10 As; Luuk de Ligt puts the value of an iugerium at 1,000 As or 100 denarii as a recommended baseline because values fluctuate a lot and because of many factors.[10]

text: Citizenship[edit]

text: Women[edit]

text: Free-born women in ancient Rome were citizens (cives), but could not vote or hold political office.[11] The form of Roman marriage called conubium, for instance, requires that both spouses be citizens; like men from towns granted civitas sine suffragio, women eligible for legal marriage were citizens without suffrage. The legal status of a mother as a citizen affected her son's citizenship.[12] The phrase ex duobus civibus Romanis natos (“children born of two Roman citizens”) indicates that a Roman woman was regarded as having citizen status, in specific contrast to a peregrina.

text: Latin Right[edit]

text: The Latin Right was a form of citizenship with limited rights. It was conferred originally on the allied towns of Latium in the Republican era, and gradually extended to communities throughout the Empire. Latin citizens had rights, but not the vote, although their leading magistrates could become full citizens.

text: Peregrini[edit]

text: Free-born foreign subjects were known as peregrini, and special laws existed to govern their conduct and disputes. These distinctions continued until 212 AD, when Caracalla extended full Roman citizenship to all free-born men in the empire.

text: Slaves[edit]

text: Slaves (servi) were not citizens, and lacked even the legal standing accorded free-born foreigners. For the most part, slaves descended from debtors and from prisoners of war, especially women and children captured during sieges and other military campaigns in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Carthage. In the later years of the Republic and into the Empire, more slaves came from newly conquered areas of Gaul, Britain, North Africa, and Asia Minor. Many slaves were created as the result of Rome's conquest of Greece, but Greek culture was considered in some respects superior to that of Rome: hence Horace's famous remark Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit ("Captured Greece took her savage conqueror captive"). The Roman playwright Terence is thought to have been brought to Rome as a slave. Thus slavery was regarded as a circumstance of birth, misfortune, or war; it was defined in terms of legal status, or rather the lack thereof, and was neither limited to or defined by ethnicity or race, nor regarded as an inescapably permanent condition.

text: Slaves who lacked skills or education performed agricultural or other forms of manual labor. Those who were violent or disobedient, or who for whatever reason were considered a danger to society, might be sentenced to labor in the mines, where they suffered under inhumane conditions. Slaves subjected to harsh labor conditions also had few if any opportunities to obtain their freedom.

text: Since slaves were legally property, they could be disposed of by their owners at any time. All children born to female slaves were slaves. Some slave owners, as for instance Tacitus,[citation needed] freed slaves whom they believed to be their natural children. Slaves who had the education or skills to earn a living were often manumitted upon the death of their owner as a condition of his will. Slaves who conducted business for their masters were also permitted to earn and save money for themselves, and some might be able to buy their own freedom.

text: Over time, legislation was passed to protect the lives and health of slaves. Although many prostitutes were slaves, for instance, the bill of sale for some slaves stipulated that they could not be used for commercial prostitution.[13]

text: Freed men[edit]

text:
Freed men (liberti) were freed slaves, whose free-born children were full citizens. The status of liberti developed throughout the Republic as their number increased. Livy states[citation needed] that freedmen in the Early Republic mainly joined the lower classes of the plebeians. Juvenal, writing during the Empire when financial
Freedmen were often highly educated and made up the bulk of the civil service during the early Empire. The Augustan poet Horace was himself the child of a freedman from Venusia in southern Italy. Many became enormously wealthy as the result of bribes, fraud, or other forms of corruption, or were given large estates by the Emperor they served.[citation needed] Other freedmen engaged in commerce, amassing vast fortunes often only rivalled by those of the wealthiest nobiles. Many of the Satires of Juvenal contain angry denouncements of the pretensions of wealthy freedmen, some 'with the chalk of the slave market still on their heel'. Juvenal saw these successful men as nouveaux riches who were far too ready to show off their (often ill-gotten) wealth. Another famous caricature is seen in the absurdly extravagant character of Trimalchio in Satyricon. The majority of freedmen, however, joined the plebeian classes, and often worked as farmers or tradesmen.